SEC Proposal Exempts $5M Crypto Offerings for 4 Years

The proposed rule would also grant a safe harbor from the definition of "investment contract" under securities laws once issuers have completed or ceased all essential managerial efforts promised to investors. That provision could make it easier for a digital asset to fall under Commodity Futures Trading Commission oversight.

The SEC had planned to meet on the "Regulation Crypto" proposal last week but canceled that meeting. The agency was also expected to unveil its innovation exemption for trading digital versions of securities around the same time. It is unclear if the SEC still plans to issue that exemption in the coming days or weeks.

A number of digital asset companies and other financial services industry leaders are expected at a White House meeting Wednesday. That meeting comes after senators failed to pass crypto market structure legislation, the Clarity Act, before the August recess.

Ethics provisions have emerged as a major sticking point in negotiations after President Donald Trump reported earning $1.4 billion from crypto and memecoin-related ventures in 2025.

"Given the progress made in Congress to date on market structure legislation, let me be clear up front: legislation remains indispensable to enacting 'future-proofed' rules of the road that are durable enough to protect the work we are undertaking today from being unwound by a future rogue regulator," Atkins said in a separate statement Tuesday.